Company, team, self; Digital identity; Dumb ChatGPT
💡Think
Hey everyone!
I'm just off riding the high of Argentina winning the World Cup 🏆, for what I think will be the last Milk, No Sugar of 2022.
The newsletter platform this is sent from – Revue – was bought by Twitter back in 2021 for what I can assume was just a few million $, because they had 6 employees and a limited paid offering.
At the time, this was one of those "yes! A small team has made it" scenarios, but this week...Twitter decided to shutdown Revue.
That means I'll (as well as a tonne of other people) have to find another newsletter platform, because yet another small time company was acquired and then killed by a larger one.
It's sad, huh? All the work and promise being flushed away. Maybe I'm too attached to the longterm heroes journey of software, but it is frustrating that the "raise money, get acquired" narrative doesn't always play out for the smaller folks.
Anywho, does anyone have any newsletter platform recommendations?
See you later! 🎢
📷 Look
📖 Read
❶ Company, team, self
This article is from an ex-engineering manager at Uber and runs through their approach (back at Uber) on how to prioritise decision making. They suggest that any call must prioritise the company first, then your team, then you as an individual. I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this idea, but thought it would be good to share to spark some discussion.
❷ Digital identity models
Although this article is attempting to identify why platforms such ad Discord are increasing in popularity, it's centrally about identity. What's clear on reflection, is that identities are becoming increasingly fluid, compared to the once rigid Facebook "one account for one identity" paradigm. Platforms are now offering the ability to have multiple versions of yourself, for use when you see fit. This is also one of the reasons it was so hard for Twitter during their acquisition – what's a bot, and what's someone's second identity?
❸ ChatGPT is dumber than you think
For a few days this past week, it seemed like the entirety of Twitter was screenshots of people prompting ChatGPT with questions and then being amazed by the results. If you haven't heard of it, it's an AI program that is...very good at generating responses to prompts. The reality is though that it's still very much not human. Sure, it can probably write you an essay on the history of economics in the UK, but it's still t a safe enough distance for us to not be horrified. Thank god!
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Bonus round
Don't be a specialist, or a generalist. Be a hybrid
David Bowie's advice on creativity
🎧 Listen
An interview with addiction expert Gabor Maté
What has this got to do with tech? Mmm, not much, but I promise you that you'll enjoy this podcast. Maté has published a lot of very revered books on the subjects of stress, addiction, and trauma and talks so eloquently about all of it. He also, in this podcast, talks at length about his own childhood and upbringing. Honestly, it's pretty inspiring.